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IRC Channels for Perl Q&A

What is the IRC?

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and is a protocol for chatting
(where the messages that are written in plaintext, appear to all the recipients
in real time), that was common from relatively early in the history of
the Internet, and is still very popular. IRC servers form networks of servers
- each network is separated from the other networks and the servers of each
network share the same chat-rooms, user profiles and messages. Each network
has different rules and conventions and a different culture. This allows
chat-rooms (called channels in IRC-jargon) with the same name to exist in
different networks.

Some popular IRC clients include the cross-platform
Chatzilla
(which is open source and free-of-charge and
can be installed as an add-on for the
Firefox browser),
HexChat, a
cross-platform, open source and free-of-charge IRC client (which runs
on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), and the Windows-based
mIRC (which is shareware and not
open-source). Furthermore, there are also web-based interfaces for chatting on
IRC networks.

IRC is a great way to get answers to questions quickly and easily. Just note
that some networks are not recommended for asking Perl questions on, due to
the treatment of beginner question, or general unfriendliness.

What about irc.perl.org?

For completeness sake, we should mention the
irc.perl.org Network which hosts
dedicated channels for many Perl-related projects and groups. Note however,
that using it, is not recommended for people who are new to Perl or IRC
due to its atmosphere (which can become hostile), and because the channel
#perl there (which is what most people would guess first) is not
intended for beginner questions. Please use Freenode or OFTC instead.

Once you have become more experienced with Perl, and wish to contribute
to Perl-related projects, you can gather up the courage to visit
irc.perl.org and make use of it.